Wurmser, a former senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, recently sat down with LIGNET Managing Editor Fred Fleitz to follow up LIGNET’s May 10 analysis “Iran: Ahmadinejad Squashed by Supreme Leader Khamenei.” (Click HERE to read this analysis.) 

Wurmser noted that Iranian parliamentary elections are not real elections in that they reflect political maneuvering among members of the leadership and not the will of the people.

A political struggle between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei played a role in the loss that Ahmadinejad and his allies suffered in the last two parliamentary elections, Wurmser said, but the more important factor was the religious split between the two Iranian leaders.